President Joseph Boakai's decision to attend the MRU meeting in Conakry, despite Guinean military posturing at our borders, is not a weakness in security--it is an exercise of sovereign dominance that he's a small boy. In the world of high-stakes diplomacy and war, showing up at the table while the other side looks with uncertainty, is the ultimate power move.
It signals that Liberia is neither intimidated by threats of war nor distracted by the "war drums" our overzealous neighbor is beating.
Guinea must be reminded that Liberia's sovereignty is not a suggestion. As the oldest republic on the continent, Liberia's borders were drawn and kept in the archives of history long before many of our neighbors like Guinea knew what independence looks like.
We played a foundational role in the liberation of our brothers and sisters across the region, including Guinea . For Guinea to tell Liberia where its lines begin or end is a historical amnesia that we will not indulge.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
Lol let me say this to those of you saying the President should have moved the meeting to a neutral location like Côte d'Ivoire: Diplomacy is not a movie; it is a discipline. Retreating to a 'neutral' ground would validate Guinea's aggression, signal fear and a lack of confidence in our President. Showing up in Guinea will remind the Guinean President the big brother is in the room to look you in his eyes and beat some senses.
A leader does not hide from a crisis; he confronts the source of it. President Boakai is not playing with security--he is securing the peace by looking in the eyes of
the provocation. Maturity means knowing that when an overzealous child who has never tasted the bitterness of war tries to provoke a veteran, the veteran uses experience, not temper, to restore order.
The Brutal Truth: The BK Enterprise Factor:
We must be firm: the genesis of this whole friction or wahala is rooted in the "BK Enterprise" incident. It is reported that BK Enterprise, a construction company in Liberia, started mining sand within the Makona River that Guineans believe it belongs to them. The company, according to report, often engages in sand minnig to support its construction work in Lofa.
Whether the sand mining in the Makona River was legal or illegal is secondary to the fact that we have weaknesses in law enforcement or regulations in Liberia. State security should have asked the company if it was caught mining sand in the Makona River and start addressing the problem from there. This debility might have encouraged a private entity like BK Enterprise to operate in a sensitive border zone.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
This is a failure of domestic discipline. We see unregulated sand mining across Liberia daily; this "softness" in enforcing our own laws gave Guinea the opening they needed to seize equipment and escalate a business dispute into a military standoff. We need to act smart here!
Liberia's Global Mandate:
As a current member of the UN Security Council, Liberia carries a global mandate for peace. We are no strangers to conflict--we know war, we fought war, and most importantly, we ended war. Our role now is to export that stability, not to be sucked back into the chaos of those who "don't know the fire they are playing with."
President Boakai's visit to Conakry is a sign of a serious leader delivering a silent but stern warning: Liberia is committed to the MRU family, but our patience for military posturing is not infinite.
This is a simple issue of a border dispute that requires a logical, de-escalated solution--not the deployment of armies. We congratulate the President for his courage and his refusal to let a neighbor's insecurity dictate Liberia's foreign policy.
